Trent Buses Of The 1990s


Compared to its current day operation in a sea of garish route dedicated liveries the early 90s pretty well saw the final transition from the influence of the National Bus Company into the modern day logic of the so called "Marks & Spencer" of the bus industry where the variety of liveries are likened to packaging on goods sold on the high street - change that and all and sundry think they're onto something new.

This part of the site deals with most types of vehicles which were an every day sight on the streets during the 90s and just before.


In the grid below click on each picture to access galleries of that vehicle type.

All pictures © Mr B!!


Site News Details of when sections are added or altered can be found here.
Leyland Tigers - two main batches of these for National Express duties as well as use on the "Trent Tigers" excursion business. The first batch carried the relatively rare Duple laser body whilst the second a more familiar Plaxton body.
Leyland National 2 - arguably the nearest thing to a series 3 Bristol RE when equipped with a Gardner engine (only three Gardner examples were new, one was retro-fitted) the other engine type was the Leyland L11 or a re-engineered 0.680 in other words!
The last day - pictorial record of the final services between Derby - Melbourne and Swadlincote and a quick look at the final 103 and 104 services.

COMING SOON!

Bristol RELH - high floor version of this popular type a pair saw use at Derby towards the end of their careers on competing services on local routes.

COMING SOON!

Leyland National - Trent became a somewhat prolific operator of this type purchasing a good number of secondhand examples which went on to form the backbone of the Blue Apple operation

COMING SOON!

Daimler Fleetline - a throwback to British Electric Traction (BET) days the company operated a respectable amount of this type. By the 1990s only four were to survive including a pair of former London Transport DMS class vehicles

Leyland Atlantean - as with the Fleetline another throwback to BET days, the two final batches survived well into the decade

COMING SOON!

Leyland Olympian - the final Bristol inspired double deck vehicles

Bristol VR - Perhaps due to the BET roots these were never really popular with the powers that be, indeed withdrawals couldn't come fast enough during the 90s. The type were, however, fairly well liked by their crews.

Optare Delta - The beginning of the image conscious era. The salesmen said they will only ever need fuelling and washing, the problems began to set in only after reductions in engineering staffing levels.

Optare Vecta (and a Sigma) - these vehicles based on a rather narrow MAN chassis and the Dennis lance began to appear in the fleet towards the end of 1994.

Volvo B10B - Thirsty but very reliable vehicles although generally disliked by the powers that be because of fuel costs, funny how generally lower maintenance costs tend to be brushed aside!!

Go back to the main site contents page